How Ukrainian revolution affected Metro game's developers

Metro Redux is a next gen upgrade of post-apocalyptic survival horror shooters Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light from Ukrainian developer 4A Studios. Based on the novels of Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky, the games are set in a subterranean network of former subway stations, where the protagonist Artyom finds himself caught between feuding leaders of the survivor tribes and the mutated, radioactive terrors that lurk in the darkness. Global Brand Manager Huw Beynon speaks with Wired.co.uk on the revamp process, Glukhovsky's involvement in the series, and real-world political upheaval impacting the developers.

Wired.co.uk: Even the first Metro game isn't that old, and Last Light only came out last year. I guess the obvious question is: why remake them?

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Huw Beynon: I think Metro is a game best appreciated on next gen or next gen-equivalent consoles. The first game from 2010 does still look spectacular on PC. I think most people know that a high-end PC is really the best way to enjoy

Last Light as well. We already had the tech in place to take advantage of the new consoles so it seemed like a perfect opportunity to bring both games back, not just for the next gen consoles but for the PCs as well. Because we had a narrower focus on hardware specs, it meant we didn't have to sacrifice as much when making the console versions.

What are some of the changes made between the versions?

Definitely the most significant changes are in Metro 2033.

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For Last Light we had a pretty spectacular PC version to use as a base. What we've done is gone through each game with the idea of being able to play each game in the style of the other.

That was a big piece of feedback that we got from our fanbase on

Last Light, who felt that the game had veered a bit too far away from the more survival horror oriented gameplay of the original. We're calling these two gameplay styles Survival and Spartan.

Survival is the classic style of Metro 2033. We've tweaked a lot of the parameters, so the speed at which you reload or swap weapons is slowed down and the amount of resources you get is rebalanced so that you have to conserve ammo and filters. We've made the enemy AI with a higher range of perception and speed of reaction, to use the Last Light stealth model. It's a little less forgiving.

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4A Studios/Deep Silver

Spartan mode is a more traditional shoot-everything mode. Even within Metro, seeing people get to grips with it, that tactic doesn't really work as well as it would in Call of Duty, but it does have more forgiving combat. The most dramatic changes were in Metro 2033 because it looks great on PC but it was a very demanding piece of tech. The first iteration of the engine had some beautiful effects but it was not really very well optimised and it will still bring some PCs squealing to a halt. The tech we had for Last Light was much more efficient and you get much higher performance, so we basically rebuilt the first game in Last Light's tech. The whole gameplay framework too -- 2033 was a bit rusty around the edges. Some other mechanics such as the mask-wiping from

Last Light, which everyone loved, or the fact that you can customise your weapons, all are built into the framework so that they can take place in 2033 as well.

Have you modified the story at all? Last Light followed on from a specific choice you could make in2033.

We've not changed the storyline or the mechanics that lead to the two endings -- I think you have to be really careful when you return to material to make sure you don't alter the canon. George Lucas found that to his cost! The storyline and campaign are the same from the original so in 2033 you can still get that alternate ending if you play a certain way and make that choice. We still take the one canon ending going into Last Light though.

Any multiplayer, or will it remain entirely single player?

No, all singleplayer. Metro Last Light will include all the DLC that we released over the summer and autumn of last year, but there's no multiplayer in that.

Are there any plans to carry the series beyond Last Light?

I can't really talk about that at the moment. We have a few ideas...

How much does it depend on the source material Glukhovsky's novels?

It was actually a slightly different approach for each project. For

Metro 2033, when 4A formed they knew they wanted to do something special and they were inspired by Half-Life to do a more cinematic, story-driven game. They discovered Dmitri's 2033, which hadn't been published in print at that point, just online. Obviously they take a lot of liberties with the action scenes, but it essentially follows the main narrative and essential themes of the novel. Dmitri worked really closely with us and even contributed some of the dialogue.

When we came to approach a sequel in Last Light, there was nothing in the material suitable for it. He had written a follow up [the novella 2034] which didn't really make sense as a video game story. He's described it to me as his first shot at an esoteric art-house novel, which isn't what we were looking for to continue Artyom's story. He's very much left on a cliff-hanger at the end of 2033 the novel, the conclusion of what he thought he was working for and realising he's been living under a huge misapprehension and that his actions will have dire consequences. Last Light is the redemption story. It brings Artyom around full circle. We brought the story to Dimitri, who really liked the idea, and instead of having a novel to work on he basically did all the pre-production stuff he would have done for a novel and gave all the story stuff to 4A to build on.

In a unique twist, he then decided that he'd like to write the novel of that, so the next novel, 2035, is basically the novelisation of Last Light with additional material.

4A Studios/Deep Silver

Would you hypothetically repeat the partnership for future games?

It's Dmitri's franchise and his IP, so it would have to be with his blessing. What he brings to the job is something a lot of developers would kill for. He's not a writer for hire that just scribbles down back-stories for characters. It's his world and he's hugely invested in it. Every one of the little conversations and side-stories you hear are something he wove together.

Has having the novel available in English changed people's awareness of Metro in the west?

Metro 2033 has been successful but 2034 never got an English translation. [Actually, it just did, in February this year] I actually think that while the first instance was an interesting entry point for people to learn more about the game, now the game is creating more awareness for him and his novels. Which is no bad thing! He actually invited people to contribute when he first published it. He'd get ex-Soviet soldiers writing in to tell him how his characters should reload and he factored that stuff in before the final publication.

Were there any challenges in revamping the games for the new generation of consoles?

Apart from actually getting the kits out to the devs in the Ukraine? All the next-gen developer kits, we had to physically take into the country and hand them over because that was the only way to get them there. All the couriers, even UPS, won't deliver there and an arbitrary, say, five thousand euro fine might be applied if we tried to post them. And then a revolution kicked off in the country! I think more than anything the team was pleasantly surprised when we gave them the dev kits. They had an idea of what to expect from the specs they'd seen and were then able to get their performance closer to high-end PC.

Did the recent political actions in Ukraine have a major impact?

Yeah, 4A are opening a new studio in Malta and that's something that's been in the plans for some time. Fortuitously, the first wave of staff is moving over soon. It's really not so much to do with safety, it's just been quite difficult for them to find partners and do business out there. There's always been a lot of risk involved with dealing with them, getting hardware to them.

It's not an EU country. It's not officially supported by the first parties. Malta's a nice sunny EU country where hopefully the team can enjoy better working conditions and better access to first-party stuff.

The Russia/Ukraine tension -- that's going to affect any creative industry. What has your level of input been with 4A during these difficult times?

I communicate with them daily when I can, several times a week at least. We've got this guy at the studio called Dean Sharp who's been at the studio since the start. He was shipped there by THQ as an external producer to help them get the game down. When the 4A guys struck out on their own they realized that they needed that steering hand in the studio. He's my day to day contact with them.

It must be troubling to have a work environment where you're not sure if you're safe to actually do your work.

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The guys in the studio were leaving the office when the initial protests kicked off in Independence Square and then all of the sudden things took a more serious tone. We were asking them to stay out of trouble. It looked like, around the turn of the year, that they'd got what they wanted and suddenly a much more serious situation developed! Everyone's watching it carefully with no small amount of unease. Things have calmed down in Kiev since the winter but it's always been a tough environment to work in. They've never asked for sympathy, just got on and done the work, but they came to the conclusion that they should be based elsewhere.

Metro Redux launches on PS4, Xbox One, and PC this summer, with both games included in one package.